An old cartoon showed a building with a sign over the entrance: "Department of Redundancy Department. " There are many things it makes sense for the federal government to do. The trouble arises when those in charge decide that anything worth doing is worth duplicating. The multiplication game doesn't mean things get done better. If anything, they may get done worse. But they certainly get done more expensively. A case in point is the Pentagon's experience with camouflage fatigues.

As Congress prepares to examine how a Virginia couple crashed last week's state dinner at the White House, the pair may be pointing to e-mail correspondence they had with a Pentagon official to prove they were invited guests. Federal officials say that Tareq and Michaele Salahi were mistakenly admitted by Secret Service agents who failed to verify that they were on the guest list. But authorities acknowledged Monday that in the weeks leading up to the dinner, the Salahis traded e-mails with Michele Jones, a top Obama appointee at the Pentagon, in hopes of scoring an invitation.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it was announcing new safety precautions on its F-22 fighter jets -- including limiting the range of flights -- after pilots experienced symptoms of oxygen deprivation aboard the advanced stealth aircraft. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the F-22s, built by built by Lockheed Martin Corp, would only be allowed to fly within a certain proximity of potential landing locations. The Air Force will also expedite installation of an automatic backup oxygen system.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it saw no change in the Russian force posture along the Ukrainian border, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that they had returned to their training areas. Asked whether Russia could be withdrawing troops without the Pentagon being able to see it, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren told reporters: "We would know. " "We have seen no change in the Russian force posture and we've long called on the Russians ... to withdraw their troops" from along the border, Warren said.

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Pentagon warned on Thursday in a letter to a former U.S. Navy SEAL that he was in material breach of non-disclosure agreements with his book detailing his first-hand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, also said the Pentagon was considering legal action against the SEAL and all those "acting in concert" with him. "In the judgment of the Department of Defense, you are in material breach and violation of the non-disclosure agreements you signed," the letter by Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon's top lawyer, said.